The Food That Made Me

Kids, you don’t know how much your mommy loves you.

One of my favorite songs is by Chris Janson called Bye Mom. The chorus goes:

“When you think you’re grown but you’re still a kid

And you don’t know you’re somebody

That somebody loves more than themselves”

I had a thought today. I’m happy to be a dad because I can experience the love that my mommy had for me. When I was just a child, I didn’t recognize how much my mommy loved me. Yes, I was the golden child. Yes, I was the youngest. Yes, mommy bought me whatever toys that I wanted. I thought that love was material. The best food. The best toys.

As I grew older (well into my 20s), I learned that my mommy’s love was unconditional. I can’t count the number of classes that she drove me to: art, gymnastics, golf, Chinese school, tutoring, and the list goes on. I also can’t count the number of times I yelled at her for pointless reasons. I can’t count the number of nights that she stayed up with me to help me practice my Chinese flashcards. There are so many things that I can’t count. Now, through your mommy, I’m experiencing the countless times a mother soothes her baby to sleep. I’m experiencing the countless number of times when a baby can only cry because they have no other way to communicate, and yet mothers gently respond to the chaos.

There’s another song that I love called “Visiting Hours” by Ed Sheeran. It goes:

“I wish that heaven had visiting hours

So I could just swing by and ask your advice

What would you do in my situation? I haven’t a clue how I’d even raise them”

Now, I’m happy that I chose to be a father because I can continue experiencing what my mom has experienced. I can now love somebody more than themselves. Although without visiting hours, her spirit still lives on as I can see in your mommy.

My favorite cake growing up was a mango mousse cake. I would love it every time that my mommy got it for me. I’m so happy that my Niece #1 said mango was her choice for a birthday cake.

Here’s are tips about the recipe from Mooncakes and Milkbread.

1. The base is a Chinese Sponge Cake recipe again, so the only difference with the other recipe is the mousse.
2. If you run out of parchment paper, you can’t use wax paper, but you can spread butter to coat the pan. Then add a bit of flour and coat the pan by tapping it through.
3. Learn what a stiff peak is. Uncle Butters and I and your mommy spent a lot of time questioning ourselves if we had the right consistency.
4. You can’t have a speck of yolk in the egg whites, or it won’t foam up nicely.
5. Try to leave a bit more of the foam to fold it in last to make sure that your end product is airy.
6. Learn how to gently fold in the flour. At this time, I felt like I was stabbing it instead.
7. Have a cake ring and acetate strips ready. The cake will not mold into a circle if you don’t have it. Layer cake, mousse, cake, then mousse again. Then decorate the top with mangos.
8. Decorate the cake nicely. I kind of cheated this time because your mommy saw the ugliness of what I made with the mangoes and then redid it herself. Finish strong, don’t waste all of your efforts to up that point.